


Embarrassment, Panic, and just a little bit of Love

by Katsprinkles



Category: Sherlock (TV), Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms
Genre: Birthday Fluff, Developing Sherlock Holmes/John Watson, Fluff, I tried to make this cute, John Finds Out, John can blush really hard just sayin, Johnlock Fluff, POV John Watson, TJLC | The Johnlock Conspiracy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-18
Updated: 2018-04-18
Packaged: 2019-04-24 10:45:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14353875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katsprinkles/pseuds/Katsprinkles
Summary: John finds a little to-do list by Sherlock. He wasn't supposed to find it. But it made him blush, which is ok.





	Embarrassment, Panic, and just a little bit of Love

# Embarrassment, Panic, and just a little bit of Love 

“Sherlock!” John called from the flat door. “I’m back!”  
He trudged up the stairs, the grocery bags weighing him down, causing the wooden steps to creak ever more louder. Why did it always have to be John who got the groceries? Sherlock didn’t even have a believable reason to stay home this time. Had to do with planning something. Sherlock doesn’t need time to plan. All he ever has to do is go to his _mind palace_ and sort things out in a matter of seconds.  
John opened the door to the room with his foot, staggering in and plopping the bags on the floor with a loud _thump._ “Sherlock? You here?”  
The room was empty, save the papers strewn across the entire room. Some were crumpled, some pictures were hung on the wall, but most of the paper was in piles, wherever the furniture didn’t take up space. It was like living in a paper house these days. John glanced into the kitchen, where the familiar de-facto laboratory had been expanded, dominating the counters and tiles as well. Still no sign of Sherlock. Must have ran off on another case somewhere.  
Tip-toeing to his armchair, John carefully lowered himself down into the seat so as to not to disturb the piles of paper. He closed his eyes, trying to block out the mess from his mind. Unsuccessful, he forced them open again.  
_God, I can’t live like this. I am not celebrating my birthday tomorrow in this mess. Guess it’s up to me to humanize this place. Again._ For it was indeed John Watson’s birthday the following day, and although he wasn’t expecting any company to come over, it would still be nice to spend the day in a neater flat.  
He got up and started going through the notes and pictures and articles around his chair. There seemed to be three distinct topics to the material, three different people, and John organized each piece of information in separate stacks on the desk. He worked like this for what seemed to be an eternity, gradually moving deeper into the room, shuffling through everything and placing it in its rightful place in the stacks. 

By the time he was halfway through, John decided to take a break. He spotted a leather-bound book on Sherlock’s desk, titled _‘The After-Effects of Loss.’_ He hadn’t the slightest clue why Sherlock would own such a book, but since all the other books Sherlock owned consisted of gory and sometimes sickening topics, this title appeared very ordinary. And John was all for ordinary.  
He sat down on his armchair and opened the book, preparing to read a chapter or two before getting back into Sherlock’s mess. A slip of half-folded paper fluttered out as he opened it, landing on the floor. Intrigued, John leaned down and grasped it with two of his fingers, pulling it back up and unfolding the mysterious note.  
Sherlock appeared to have written a list. John could never mistake the scribbly writing style for anybody else’s. It was numbered, with a small box beside each entry. A to-do list. Again, this was one of those things Sherlock never did. Like planning, in which he went to his mind-palace, keeping track of of what has and what hasn’t been done was exactly the same. So either Sherlock’s mind-palace wasn’t working, which was unheard of, or this was something to big to contain in such an abstract place. The latter was more likely, and John felt a rush of excitement in his chest, for he was about to read something that might even-out the balance of knowledge between himself and Sherlock. John Watson wouldn’t be kept in the dark for much longer!  
_1\. Chocolate cake_  
It took a few seconds for John to decipher the first word through Sherlock’s messy writing, after which he was utterly disappointed. He had expected to find something that had to do with a mind-boggling case Sherlock hadn’t told him about. But his excitement returned when he realized what this list _really_ was. The flatmates never have cake except for birthdays, and here it is on a list, checked off, right before the day of his birthday. John chuckled to himself, at first wondering how Sherlock even knew about the exact date, then coming to the conclusion that he must’ve looked at his birth-certificate.  
_2\. Clean the flat_  
John beat him to it. Or at least half of it. Nice to know Sherlock was planning to do that though. Sherlock would never clean the flat if it was just himself and John though, unless he was in an exceptionally good mood. A birthday party, then. With all three of their friends.  
_3\. Music - instrumental_  
Checked off - Because what would be a birthday party without music? John didn’t ponder much about this one. Neither he nor Sherlock liked obnoxious pop-songs, so Sherlock choosing instrumental music wasn’t anything surprising.  
_4\. Shepherd’s pie, fancy cheese, wine_  
Shepherd's pie! John remembered telling Sherlock how much he loved the food, way back when they first met and were getting to know each other. Sherlock hadn’t forgotten!  
_5\. Table candles and flowers_  
Wow. Sherlock really couldn’t resist a touch of the dramatic. A little over the top for a birthday party, but John supposed he had his reasons. He was flattered Sherlock was going through all this trouble of making the atmosphere perfect.  
The next scribbly line of writing baffled John to some extent.  
_6\. Cancel all plans and turn off notifications/calls_  
Now, what could have caused him to write that? The former was appropriate, Sherlock running off to an investigation during his birthday party would be rude, especially since he was the one who is planning it. But notifications? What if there was an emergency? John thought that this entry went a little overboard for a birthday party. Sherlock would eliminate all possible distractions to make John’s day perfect. Quite surprising.  
_7\. Ensure total privacy - just the two of us_  
John stared at the line for a few seconds while his brain refused to function. He read it again and again before confirming each and every word, making sure the writing style didn’t deceive the eye. _Candles. Wine. Flowers. Music. Just the two of us._ This wasn’t going to be a birthday party. This was a birthday _date._ Sherlock was planning a date! John’s mind blanked out a second time, trying to comprehend all these new emotions flooding his thoughts. Sherlock had… _feelings_ for him.  
John jumped up and punched the air, then immediately sat back down, confused at why he’d done that. He decided to leave the matter on hold, at least for now. He’ll bring it up during their date. _Date._ The word felt strange in his head, tumbling around along with Sherlock’s face. John hadn’t even read the last item on the list yet.  
_8\. Kiss John Watson_  
Oh, God.  
John heard the flat door opening and put the list back into the book, slamming it shut in a panic-attack. He rushed over to Sherlock’s desk and dropped it where it lay before, jumping back into his seat as the sound of Sherlock’s footsteps on the stairs grew nearer and nearer, until finally the door to the room opened and he stepped in.

Sherlock moved to the middle of the room “What happened?” He asked.  
“I cleaned the flat. Half of it, at least.”  
“No, your face. It’s bright red.”  
John looked away, willing himself to stop blushing, which only made his face to get even hotter.  
“Nice book you have there.” John gestured to the leather-bound book on the desk. _‘The After-Effects of Loss.’_ Do you actually read it, or do you just use it for storing secret lists?”  
Now both of them were tomatoes.  
“Did - did you read it?” Sherlock asked, abandoning his usual calm demeanor to stammer out the words.  
“I was going to, but a slip of paper was in the way.”  
Sherlock stood there as still as a statue, returning John’s stare with an mixture of embarrassment and panic. And something else too. John heart skipped a beat when he realized what that ‘something else’ was. Embarrassment, panic, and just a little bit of love.  
“Sherlock, come here.”  
Sherlock walked took two steps closer to where John was now standing, a confused expression on his face. A second passed where the two held each other’s gazes, before John grasped Sherlock by his collar and pulled him in. 

 

“You can check that one off the list, Sherlock.”

**Author's Note:**

> LOOK Y'ALL it's my first fanfic! It didn't even take as long as I thought it would! (Probably because I didn't plan this!) It got a bit rushed near the end but that's probably because of the reason I was too scared to mess it up so I just made it short. Oh well. Also I don't know how to properly format yet, so it just looks like three giant chunks of words for now.
> 
> UPDATE!! Listen to the awesome podfic by TheDigitalVoice, and it's really cool because it's my first fanfic and their first podfic. https://archiveofourown.org/works/14366229

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[Podfic] Embarrassment, Panic and just a little bit of Love](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14366229) by [TheDigitalVoice (TheDigitalAlchemist)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDigitalAlchemist/pseuds/TheDigitalVoice)




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